Shume e bukur!

Last Saturday we went on a "Volunteer Visit", which was our first chance to see a volunteer in action who is working in our respective sectors. For our visit we got to go to Vlora which is a beautiful city on the Southern coast, or as the Albanians say about it, "Vlora eshte shume e bukur," Vlora is very beautiful. Vlora is very big, so it was quite different from our little village and it was a good chance to see the variety of issues faced by volunteers who work in the bigger cities.

The Volunteers that we met and stayed with were very friendly and great hosts. They took us to the beach (still too cold to swim), all the good restaurants (meaning that they had Tabasco available), and made a very good Mexican dinner for us. They also scored us an invite to a local teacher's house to have a fish dinner. There are 3 volunteers currently serving in Vlora, one for each sector. They all teach at least one class at the university, so we both got to see what-

Lauren will be in for over the next two years. The classes were very large, up to 160 in the lectures, and about 30 or 40 in the seminars. As with any class there were some students who were very motivated and others who were disruptive. Some of the students spoke English very well while others were struggling to understand the concepts of the lesson.

The volunteer there had also set up a meeting with the director of the Health Center, but at the last minute, she was called to the capital, Tirane. From talking to many of the health volunteers, it seems that this sector is the most undefined assignment. Depending on your permanent site, a health volunteer could be doing any number of things including even teaching a class at the university. Speaking of site placements, we will find out this Friday were we will be going to live for the next 2 years. The only thing we know for sure is that we will be in a larger city, because only a larger city would have a university where Lauren will teach.

Since we got back on Tuesday we have been back at school trying out best to learn Shqip. Lauren is well in the lead now. The family will ask me a question and when I take more than 5 seconds to respond they turn and look to her. Lauren is very good about just talking even if she does not make any sense while I think too much and take far to long to get out my sentences. This usually evokes the response that Lauren speaks shume shqip while I speak pak. I think people forget that we have only been learning this language for three weeks now! Last Saturday we had language simulation stations in Elbasan, where we were split up into groups and had to go around the town to practice our shqip. We went to the coffee bar, high school, Orthodox church, and to the market. While I was supposed to be asking people how much things cost I got some good pictures of the market and the outside of the church.

Easter in Albania is not like in the USA, no Easter Egg Hunts, no chocolate, no Church services. That is a generalization, the North part of the country is Catholic so it might be different up there, and in the larger towns it is possible to find a church, but in our village and the surrounding area there are not any churches, we did find a mosque but I am not sure if it is active or not. Many Albanians define themselves by a religion, Orthodox, Islam, or Catholic but do not practice their faith at a church. As a famous Albanian author once wrote, "the religion of Albania is Albanianism."



Interesting Side Notes:

• The morning TV shows consist of people standing around reading out loud that day's newspaper with music videos thrown in every 10 minutes.

• They love Big Brother here, Albania has its own version with some very controversial characters.
  
  
• Albanians love going for coffee, which doesn't really mean that you are going for coffee, it could be beer, coke, or tea. However, if you are single and go three times it might be construed that you are dating.
  
  
  
• Older Albanians really do shake their head side to side when they yes, which causes great confusion.

• They have 10 extra letters in their alphabet, several of which sound exactly like other letters in their alphabet but they swear we will be able to hear the difference soon.
  
  
  
• They put silent e's on the end of a lot of words that are pronounced in the South but never in the North.
  
  
• We are not allowed to travel after dark. This goes for Embassy staff too.

• They really do love America here, the cafe that George Bush visited here, was renamed The George Bush Cafe, and the seat were he sat is roped off. They also love Hilary and Bill and now they are big fans of Obama. We will often hear Obama yelled at us followed by a friendly wave.

• Orange, olive, lemon, and fig trees abound.
  
  
  
• There are many superstitions and most people protect their homes from the "evil eye" by hanging stuffed animals, garlic, or scarecrow looking figures. Our house wards off evil with a very intimidating "my little pony."

Local Flower and the view from the hill behind our house in Pajove.

Market in Elbasan, and the outside of the Orthodox Chruch.






This is our "Grandfather" planting beans.

This is the road upto our house.